The small spark of a Facebook page dedicated to a walk-out at Jones ignited the fire that was a full-out student led protest, consisting of about 800 Chicago Public Schools students from Jones, Walter Payton, Whitney Young, John F. Kennedy High School, and Northside College Prep, to name a few. The students gathered at the The James R. Thompson Center after school on Friday, November 6th, and began marching around the perimeter of the building.

Chants such as “Students united can never be divided” and “S.O.S! Save our schools.” were proclaimed with evident passion and excitement.

“I’m feeling very emotional and excited. Everything’s running well right now.” said Ngozi Amadikwu ’17 “I’m happy that all these students came to support this cause this issue is very important and education is very important. The state should take our education very seriously.”

After about an hour of marching around the Thompson Center building, students gathered out front to listen to speeches made by other students and Illinois State Government Officials. Illinois State Representatives Christian Mitchell and Will Guzzardi as well as Chicago’s 45th Ward Alderman John Arena made speeches to the crowd.

Whitney Young Senior, Charles Kotrba, was one of the first students to speak. Kotrba explained, “We’re going to lose classes, APs, art classes, we just won’t have them anymore.” The senior went on to mention how the schools in more impoverished areas of the city struggle to get by without the budget cuts and asked the audience to imagine the affects of the budget cuts on them.

Sandwiched between student speakers, Representative Mitchell expressed his support of CPS students and motivated students to stay active and fight for their futures.

“We’ve got folks in this crowd that could be the next great artist or the next the next great author,” said Mitchell, “but the only way you can fulfill your God-given potential is if this state invests in you.”

At the moment, there are a lot of uncertainties as to what’s going to happen with the budget and whether or not it will go through. However, there’s no doubt that this demonstration will not be the last of its kind. At the end of the rally, two student leaders, Anthony Wagner and Darcy Palder both ’17, encouraged students to attend the Student Union Meeting and to keep their eyes open for the next “study-in”.

“You (Bruce Rauner, Mike Madigan, Rahm Emmanuel and Forest Claypool) have to come up with a plan.” said Kotrba, “A plan that funds our futures. Because we will stand up and fight for our teachers. We won’t let you do this.We deserve a fair education. We deserve a good school, and we’re going to fight for that.”